Satori yuku makoto no michi ni irinureba koishikarubeki furusato mo nashi

English Translation

Since I have entered
on the true and faithful path
that leads toward awakening,
there is no home at all
for which I ought to long.

Meaning

Since I have entered on the true path that leads to awakening, there is no longer any home for me to long for.

Commentary

Book Ten Travel Poems 985

Headnote: "A travel poem, when he presented a hundred-poem sequence."
This is the first of the sequence that closes the book with thoughts of home and the capital. Having entered the true path toward awakening, the speaker says he has no home left to long for, the travel feeling of one who lives the Buddhist way. According to the headnote, it is a travel poem composed when he presented a hundred-poem sequence.
No author is named, and the poem continues from the preceding one as a work of Jien. Jien, a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the history Gukanshō.
The scene is an inner journey likening the Buddhist way to travel, on a road with no particular place.
The direct occasion is composing on the travel topic when he presented a hundred-poem sequence to Retired Emperor Go-Toba.

The first line, "satori yuku," means "advancing toward awakening." It likens Buddhist practice to a road.
The second line, "makoto no michi ni," means "on the true path." The road of travel and the Buddhist path are laid together.
The third line, "irinureba," means "since I have entered." The perfective "nure" with "ba" gives the reason.
The fourth line, "koishikarubeki," means "that I ought to long for." It presumes the longing for home sung of again and again in travel poems.
The last line, "furusato mo nashi," means "there is no home at all." Where 965 sings "nao furusato o kaerimiru" and many poems weep for home, this poem declares that one who has entered the Buddhist way has no home to long for, turning reason on the convention of Travel Poems, which has sung of longing for home again and again. From here the poems that close the book with thoughts of home and the capital follow.

Author

Jien

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other